Page 21 - GP Spring 2022

How to Make Your Own Custom Composite Shade Guide

By Teresa Skalyo, DDS, FAGD and Dong Min Jhang
A good smile is part of a positive first im- Don’t worry about figuring out how to well. After placing the material, close the
pression. In the field of dentistry we are not make your own custom shade guide; we clear cover and shine the curing light on the
only able to improve the oral and overall made the mistakes already so you don’t mold like you would with a filling. (Figures
health of a patient, but we can also enhance have to. I purchased the Estelite Omega 4 and 5) Give it at least two or three cycles
the esthetics of their smile. By adjusting Custom shade guide from Tokuyama Den- with the light to be sure it is fully cured.
a patient’s smile we can help the patient tal, handed the kit to a staff member with
have more confidence and feel better about “good hands”, and walked away. This is an
themselves. An important tool we use to important step, to delegate this to someone
help us create beautiful smiles is an accu- in your office. Just hand them the kit, this
rate shade guide. article, and let them know when you would
like the shade guide finished. DO NOT
The work we do shouldn’t just be good, micromanage. DO NOT look over their
it should also look good. Beautiful work shoulder. You will be amazed at how great
doesn’t just make your patient feel more it can be to take tasks off of your plate and
confident in their daily life; it is also a re- put them on someone else’s, but that is a
Figure 5. Curing light.
flection of the attention to detail in the den- theme for another article. Figure 4. Close the Figure 5 – Curing light.

Figure 4 – Close the cover.
tal work you provide at your office. Shade cover.
guides are a tool to help us by matching Get everything together, including all of The cover may stick to your shade, but that
the shades of various restorative materials the shades that are to be included. Start is not usually a problem and the shade tab
we plan to use to the patient’s natural den- by placing your composite in a bowl of should remain in the mold. If the shade tab
tition. By matching the colors as closely warm-hot water to make it easier to apply. breaks or comes out attached to the cov-
as possible we can avoid making the teeth Using the Estelite Omega Custom shade er you should start over and make sure to
look patchy. While different colors and guide, one thing we can’t stress enough is clean the mold and the cover before trying
patches may look nice on something like a cleanliness. Whenever you start to make a again. Do not use lubricants as they inter-
quilt, when it comes to our teeth most of us shade, make sure the mold is clean. If it’s fere with the final surface smoothness of
prefer uniformity. not clean, the tab will get stuck to the mold the tab. (Figure 6)
or have imperfections in it. Once the mold
Different restorative materials may look is clean, add some of the composites in the
slightly different even if they are both the root portion of the mold, putting a little ex-
same shade. For this reason, it is important tra past the mold to create a slight lip, this
to have a shade guide made out of the same will be useful for removing the tab. (Fig-
material that we are going to use to restore ures 1 and 2) Then place the shade guide
the tooth. A porcelain shade guide isn’t the handle into the mold and fill the rest of the
best choice to use if we are going to be mold. (Figure 3)
placing a composite restoration. There are
many shade guides out on the market that Having excess
can be purchased already set-up, and most composite in the
composite manufacturers have ready-made mold is better
Figure 7. Carefully
composite shade guides for their composite since this en- Figure 6. Open the Figure 7 - Carefully remove the shade tab.
Figure 6 – Open the cover.
systems. sures the mold cover. remove the shade tab.
will be filled The directions that come with the kit say
But what can we do if our preferred com- all around. We you can just remove your shade from the
posite company doesn’t carry all of the found that us- mold and everything should be fine. We
shades we want and we have some shades ing a compos- found that the best way to get the shade
from a different company? Do we then pur- ite instrument out is by placing your instrument tip into
chase a separate shade guide for the extra to flatten and the groove on the side
composite shades in our armamentarium? remove excess of the tab and getting
At one point I had three separate shade composite from it under the lip you

Figure 1. Adding material
guides for my composites, and some of Figure 1 – Adding material to the neck of the mold. the sides works created earlier. (Figure
the “special” shades still weren’t included. to the neck of the mold. 7) Using the lip of the
Over time, some of the tabs broke or were shade as your fulcrum,
lost and I was recently faced with the deci- lift upward and your
sion to purchase multiple new ready-made shade will come out
shade guides or to make my own custom easily. (Figure 8) Try
shade guide. After looking into the options not to scratch the mold
I found that I could make one shade guide surface. Not only do
to fit all of my composite material shades. scratches on the mold
No more multiple guides! And, if I lose one come out on your next Figure 8. Finished
of these shade tabs, I can easily make a new shade tab as grooves, shade tab.
Figure 8 – Finished shade tab.
tab. Figure 2. Close-up, Figure 3 – Adding material to the body of the mold. but the abrasive sur-

Figure 3. Adding
Figure 2 – Close-up, adding material to the neck of the mold.
adding material to the material to the body
neck of the mold. of the mold. www.nysagd.org l Spring 2022 l GP 21